A Glimpse of Life in Kilulu

Tom Fagan, S.M.A. Lay Missionary, during his break from Language School, visited Kilulu, Tanzania, in the Diocese of Shinyanga, where he will be serving. He writes the following: I’ve got a much better idea of what my life will be like after Language School. It should be very good but challenging in many ways. I visited Kilulu Parish for eight days. The best way to describe it is to say I will be living and working in the bush.

“Outstations” is the term we use to describe remote locations away from the main church where we go to reach people. There are 37 outstations in the parish. Most of these are in, or close to, tiny villages, and accessed by traveling rugged backcountry roads. Kilulu is also an outstation with about ten buildings. It is a 20 minute drive across dirt roads from a small town called Bariadi. Kilulu is on the western edge of the parish which extends 40 miles to the east to the famous Serengeti National Park. The house I will use as a home base is in Kilulu with the pastor, Fr. Michel Domingue, S.M.A. of the Canadian District. Also, I will stay for extended periods at Nanga, another small village about an hour away, with Fr. Frank Diamond, S.M.A. of the Irish Province.

The people are scattered about the countryside and live in mud brick homes on their farmland where they raise corn, rice, cotton, cattle, goats and sometimes sheep. They have no machinery for the fields and do much of the work with hoes. The houses have no glass in the windows, electricity or running water. Most people get water directly from rivers and streams. They are lucky if they have access to a well. From the farthest end of the parish, by the Serengeti, it is almost a four-hour drive to the closest clinic.

Mission Assignment from Kilulu or Nanga I will drive to many other outstations, some as much as an hour and a half away from either house in the dry season. I will teach Bible study and Catholic catechism in the 18 high schools, since the older students speak some English as well as Kiswahili. Their own language is Kisukuma (the ethnic group is Sukuma), so even Kiswahili is a second language for them as it is for me. But they are much better at it than I am since it is a Bantu language and similar to their own language. It is virtually impossible to have statistics in such a remote area but the priests believe less than 5% of the people are Christians. The rest have their local ethnic beliefs. This kind of mission location is called a “primary evangelization” area where the Catholic Faith is not well known. It was really great to be in the villages and meet the people during my break from Language School. I look forward to returning to Kilulu in two months when I complete my Kiswahili Language School.